Cool! Nice vintagey sound. Here’s something you might enjoy:
https://sites.google.com/site/donbrowne/marion
Used to listen on WBCQ shortwave, pretty cool to hear those old recordings on the radio. And you can even use a Baygen type radio which has a hand-crank if you like ;-)
Sorry to nitpick, that’s not an RCA machine, it was made by the Victor Talking Machine Company prior to when the company was bought by RCA circa 1929. And the record is shellac, not vinyl.
The record you are playing was acoustically recorded. In other words, the performers played and sang into a giant horn. They typically have a thin, tinny sound, with virtually no bass. Around 1925, they started using electrical recording (microphones), and the sound on them is much better.
You probably need to rebuild the reproducer (new gaskets). Parts are readily available.
Interesting. The tone-arm looks like it carries an acoustic signal based on its shape; like wind instrument. Is the sound produced purely by the physical mechanism or is there an electrical generator built-into the device?
>> I was able to pull this vintage RCA record player and some vinyl <<
Vinyl was not used for recordings back in the “hand crank” days. Most of the old 78’s were made of shellac. Vinyl became common only after WW 2, especially with the introduction of 33 1/3 and 45 RP records.
(Rubber and various plastics were occasionally used back in the early days. But they never caught on.)
Steel needles cause wear on the record with each play.
Try to find cactus needles; they wear out quickly but don’t etch the record.
FWIW I have my grandfather’s 1947 Westinghouse radio phonograph; it plays with an unbelievably rich tone (though mono). Some folks swear by vacuum tube amplifiers.
Whatever regulates the speed sure does a good job of it.
VERY Cool!
My family used to have one exactly like that.
Oh, and for what it’s worth, I bought a “wire recorder”/record player/radio from 1943. You don’t see wire recorders anymore. They were replaced by “tape” recorders. :)